As the book's subtitle ('The Improbable Origins of Modern Wall Street') suggests, Peter Bernstein has written a history of how academic theory shaped financial practice in the last half of the 20th century. It is at once an entertaining and enlightening treatment, particularly for those readers who have heard the names (like Fisher Black, Bill Sharpe, and Harry Markowitz) and want the “back fill” on their stories.

Bernstein, who was an insightful researcher in his own right as well as the founding editor of Journal of Portfolio Management, serves as the finance profession’s Boswell. While he is at his best regaling the reader with the small details behind the big ideas, the real payoff here is the good and relatively painless conceptual overview the book provides. ( )